


Pop

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Apologies, Attempted Murder, Betrayal, Danger, Emotional Hurt, Escape the Night Spoilers, Everything Hurts, Gen, I would tag "fix it" but really this doesn't fix anything, Liza is mentioned at one point, Male-Female Friendship, Manny needs a hug, Minor Character Death, Post-Betrayal, Zombies for like two seconds, through s3 ep 9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 06:05:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15679506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: He pulls off his straitjacket and storms out of the tent, tears blurring his vision, betrayal coating his heart. It's as if everything he thought he knew about the world has been engulfed in flames, and he's navigating the fire with nothing an empty tube of lip gloss and a cracked mirror.There aren't any bullets in the gun. That doesn't make it better.An Escape the Night AU.





	Pop

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks, that one scenario in _Until Dawn,_ for inspiring this. I hate everything.

"Manny, I love you!" she screams for the third time in thirty seconds, and she fires.

_Click. Click. Click._

He's still alive.

"Tricked ya!" shrieks Lucy, her high-pitched voice obliterating all their eardrums. She laughs a harsh and scratchy laugh. "You should've seen the looks on your big, dumb faces! Did you really think I'd let you do my work for me?"

Nikita immediately drops the gun.

"It wasn't loaded," Joey realizes.

"Nope! Just me messing with ya! I honestly haven't decided if I'm gonna kill anyone yet. Maybe I'll keep you all around so you can entertain me!"

Matt shakes his head as he finishes his last bite of popcorn. "You're insane."

"I know!" she giggles.

For a moment, Manny feels relieved. _I'm not dead._ He takes a deep breath, savors the feeling of air entering and exiting his still-functional lungs, and smiles. _I made it. I survived. I'm gonna get out of here with Joey and Matt and Nikita, and everything's gonna be—_

 _Nikita._ His smile vanishes. His heart breaks. _She tried to kill me!_

The other boys are almost done with the artifact when she approaches him, her arms outstretched. "We did it!" she chirps in the fakest voice he's ever heard in his life, as if everything's still okay, as if they're still friends.

"Yeah," he says flatly. "I guess we did."

Lucy fades into black smoke. "It wasn't supposed to go like this!" she shrieks as she vanishes. "Oh, you're all gonna die now! You can't...stop...my dad..."

Once she's gone, Matt looks up from the artifact. "Manny, you okay?"

"I'm _fine,"_ Manny snaps.

But Nikita sees the wounded expression on his face, and her eyes widen with realization. "Manny." She puts a hand on his arm. "I can explain."

"Don't touch me." He wrenches his arm away. 

"Oh, dear," says Joey. "That's not good."

"Well, she _did_ just almost shoot him," Matt helpfully points out, as if they didn't already know that. He frowns at the popcorn that litters the ground, then kicks it, muttering "it was stale, anyway" under his breath.

The girl who Manny called his best friend about ten minutes ago now seems like a stranger in a straitjacket. Her eyes brim with tears. "Manny, please, I didn't wanna do it, I didn't wanna hurt you, you gotta understand..."

"I _do_ understand." Manny's voice grows louder and more emotional as he speaks. "I guess I'm just not good enough to save."

"Manny!"

He pulls off his straitjacket and storms out of the tent, tears blurring his vision, betrayal coating his heart. It's as if everything he thought he knew about the world has been engulfed in flames, and he's navigating the fire with nothing an empty tube of lip gloss and a cracked mirror. _Nikita Dragun just tried to kill me._ His stomach hurts. His shoulders shake. _If that gun had been loaded, I'd be dead, and she wouldn't care._

She promised him that they were in this together. She must not have meant it.

"Manny!" It's her again, right on his heels. Why won't she just go away and let him find a way to start hating her? "Manny, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have done that. Please don't be mad!"

He laughs bitterly. "Seriously? 'Please don't be mad?' You tried to _kill_ me!"

"I had to shoot at _someone!_ I never would've done it if they hadn't made me! It was a mistake, a stupid mistake, and I'm _sorry!"_

She's honest-to-goodness crying now, and he wants to pull her into a hug and tell her that it's going to be all right. But he can't do that. He can't even _look_ at her without remembering the challenge, the gun pointed at his chest, her finger on the trigger...

 _I would've died for you,_ he almost says, but he holds himself back. "Just leave me alone."

Matt and Joey emerge from the tent, along with Mortimer and Calliope. "We have all the artifacts," Joey reports. "We can go home now."

"Great," says Manny. _And I'm gonna have to live the rest of my life knowing that I don't mean shit to her._

"Hey, man." Matt approaches Manny and pats him on the back. "At least you're alive. At least we're _all_ alive. We just gotta focus on getting out of here, okay? We'll worry about the rest of it later."

Manny's ears turn red, and he fakes a smile for Matt's sake. "Okay."

"Mortimer!" shouts Calliope all of a sudden. "What are you doing?"

Mortimer, who has the collar, is running towards the church for no discernible reason. The rest of the group goes after him. _Bitch,_ thinks Manny as he runs, _this better not be you about to betray us. I think I've had enough betrayal for one night._

 

Mortimer is dead.

Calliope is dead.

The Carnival Master is awake.

"I can smell the stenches of society all over you," their enemy snarls, staring at the four YouTubers with a look of utter disgust on his face. "They called you into a war that's not yours, and now you're gonna pay for it with your lives." He moves in closer. "Wait a minute. Why are there four of you? Did my daughter play one of her practical jokes again?"

"Lucy was your _daughter?"_ Joey gasps.

"Uh, her last words were literally 'you can't stop my dad,'" Matt points out. "We should've seen this coming."

The Carnival Master shakes his massive head. "My daughter was a fool. One must die to purify each artifact. That's the game."

Matt's mouth drops open. Joey starts frantically mumbling under his breath, the words "Liza" and "not again" clearly audible. Manny, meanwhile, uses a bit of logical thinking to figure out what the Carnival Master means. _Oh, God. This is it._

"Don't try it, bitch!" Nikita puts herself between Manny and the Carnival Master. "I'll kill you! I swear to God I will!"

Manny feels a rush of affection for her, and for a split second, he forgets what she did.

"Then again," says the Carnival Master, nodding at the bodies of Mortimer and Calliope, "I suppose their deaths sufficed to cleanse the final artifact. After all, I am awake. Besides, all four of you will be dead soon enough." He chuckles. "Don't be afraid. I have some very special friends who are gonna come visit you."

Nikita's hand slips into Manny's. He doesn't have the heart to pull it away, not when they're being threatened by an all-powerful beast. Matt was right. He has to focus on staying alive. He'll have plenty of time to deal with how he feels about her once they're not in danger anymore.

The dead rise, and they run.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe someday, I'll stop putting these characters through hell. Today is not that day!


End file.
